Traveling in Tokyo isn’t easy. Imagine finding your way when you can’t read the signs, street addresses aren’t necessarily sequential, and nobody understands what you’re asking. Which is why the new Grand Hyatt Tokyo at Roppongi Hills, designed for international travelers, has been making headlines since it opened last year.
Managed by Hyatt, the 390-room hotel is thoroughly Japanese, architecturally innovative but aesthetically traditional. What’s unique is that the hotel is part of the much larger Roppongi Hills project, a $4 billion building complex on 27.8 acres. Built by owner and developer Minoru Mori, Roppongi Hills is the realization of Mori’s Tokyopian dream for Tokyo, the first of many mini-cities where people can live and work.
Everything about the hotel will put a shine on your experience. The staff greet with smiles and bows and offer maps and directions and will even carry your parcels. Clerks help with telephone calls, proffer dining suggestions and lend an umbrella. You can check out a DVD film or plug your laptop into the free high-speed Internet connection on the desk in your room. If you decide to sightsee, the staff will explain the subway, find you a taxi or locate a city tour.
Guests staying in Grand Club rooms can use the private Club Lounge, staffed all day and stocked with food, drinks and wine at dinnertime. The Fitness Center is open without charge, but you must pay to use the pool and spa. Business Center services also come with a fee, for use of equipment and services.
The lobby and public rooms, high-ceilinged and airy, co-mingle glass, steel, marble, limestone, ceramic tile, wood paneling and indirect lighting. Outdoor walkways, glass staircases and escalators connect eight elegant restaurants, pocket gardens and a chapel, popular for weddings. Below the upper floor windows, gardens sprout on the rooftops, with clumps of trees and rows of rice paddies. An aesthetic feature, the gardens also reduce glare and improve earthquake stability.
The bedrooms are large, well-lit, with plush mattresses, Italian-made Frette linens, flat TV screens, minibar and coffee makers, electronic safes, high speed Internet ports, and separate tubs and showers.
In the 54-story Mori Tower, next door, are the Mori Art Museum (open daily until late) and the glass-enclosed City View deck with its 360-degree view (there’s a separate charge for both). The Tower also houses the Roppongi Hills Academy, a cultural learning center and research library for members only.
Next to that is the Asahi TV broadcasting headquarters, the Virgin Cinemas nine-screen theater, an outdoor covered performance arena, 60 additional restaurants, underground parking for 2,860 cars and a convention center with meeting rooms.
Most of the complex’ 880 apartments are already rented (monthly rents range from $3,000 to $15,000), and the project includes an ancient Buddhist Temple, a new Shinto Shrine and a 17th-century landscaped garden and koi pond once owned by a Samurai.
The smartest feature is the Roppongi Subway station, located under a round-roofed structure called “the hat.” It’s this link that brings so many visitors here, to go to the movies, shop or eat out. Conversely, hotel guests are a few steps from high-speed transport.
The biggest draw for local residents is the 200-store mall and Keyaki-zaka Street, a wide Western-style shopping avenue — with Kate Spade, Louis Vuitton, Baccarat, Hugo Boss and other high-end retailers. The hope is that Keyaki-zaka will rival Madison Avenue and Rodeo Drive.
Another luxury property in Tokyo is the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel, at 26-1 Sakuragaoka-Choshibuya, close to downtown. The lobby is attractive and the service is first-class. The 414-room hotel has several restaurants, a pool, sauna and contemporary decor. The rooms have minibar, TV, coffee makers and other standard amenities, as well as high-speed Internet access. The limo-bus from Narita Airport stops next to the ground-floor exit. A standard room for two starts at Y 30600 (about $266).
A budget-wise choice is the Park Hotel Tokyo, next to the Ginza at the base of the Shiodome development. Less elegant but equally comfortable, the Park has several restaurants, 24-hour concierge service, a tour desk, meeting rooms and a business center. Double rooms with a queen bed start at Y 18000 (about $157).
INCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE
AIRPORT SHUTTLE SERVICE: Taxis from Narita Airport into Tokyo run around $150 or more, when traffic is slow. Instead, try limo-buses, which travel five or six different routes, leave at 20-minute intervals and cost about $30 one way. Buy a bus ticket at the counter near the terminal exit and board outside at the curb.
BOOKING A HOTEL: Traditional Japanese hotels tend to charge per person, even when two share a room. But most larger tourist hotels charge by the room. Before booking, however, check that one price covers two people.
At the Grand Hyatt Tokyo Roppongi Hills a room with one king bed or two twins starts at Y 36,205 including taxes (about $315). Club Rooms, with use of the Lounge) start at Y 46,000 including taxes (about $400). Visit www.hyatt.com, or www.tokyo.grand.hyatt.com. For Roppongi Hills, visit www.roppongihills.com, or www.mori.co.jp.
For information about the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel, visit online at www.ceruleantower-hotel.com/en. For the Park Hotel Tokyo, visit www.parkhoteltokyo.com.
